Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey tickets sell out in 3 minutes, a full year before release

Christopher Nolan’s grand adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey is still a year from its theater release, yet tickets can already be purchased. Or at least, that was the case – for a short time. In a move that was both strange and bold, tickets for the initial IMAX showings of The Odyssey at selected theaters in the US were made available for purchase on Thursday, one year prior to the film’s debut.

They were quickly taken within minutes, if not seconds. The movie, featuring Matt Damon and Tom Holland, alongside a large ensemble cast, is scheduled to debut on July 17, 2026. On Thursday, commemorating the one-year countdown to its release, IMAX tickets for the film became available in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and London, among others. On Thursday night, numerous social media users flocked to Instagram and TikTok to post videos showing that the tickets had totally sold out only moments after being available.

One person posted a screengrab of ticket booking on Twitter (now X), writing, “It’s been three minutes since the Odyssey IMAX 70MM tickets went on sale and the Universal City Walk July 16th show is nearly sold out.” Another person talked about a different theatre and wrote, “Every showing for The Odyssey at the Lincoln Square Theatre sold out in less than 3 minutes. In some theatres in Los Angeles, the IMAX tickets were sold out less than a minute after the sale went live, the fastest it has happened for any film in recent history.

Earlier on Thursday, IMAX took to social media to announce ticket sales and provide a list of the theatres where early bird tickets for The Odyssey were available. In addition to 14 cities in the US and 4 in Canada, tickets also went live for IMAX screens in Melbourne, London, and Prague.